The best way to fight off an aggressor is to keep them from attacking you in the first place. Build up a reputation: You're a little crazy. Fighting you is not worth it. Uncertainty is sometimes better than overt threat: If your opponents are never sure what messing with you will cost, they will not want to find out.

Retreat in the face of a strong enemy is a sign not of weakness but of strength. By resisting the temptation to respond to an aggressor, you buy yourself valuable time - time to recover, to think, to gain perspective. Sometimes you can accomplish most by doing nothing.

The best way to fight off an aggressor is to keep them from attacking you in the first place. Build up a reputation: You're a little crazy. Fighting you is not worth it. Uncertainty is sometimes better than overt threat: If your opponents are never sure what messing with you will cost, they will not want to find out.

The Imperial Roman army was notoriously known all over the world as the baddest, meanest, and nastiest fighting force on the planet....

And was severely underused....

The army after Augustus participated in very few wars, and far fewer large scale wars of conquest.

The reason why isn't because the Romans ran out of places to conquer (well....that's part of the reason...), but rather because no one wanted to mess with them. There was not one organized army capable of taking on the Roman army.

Occasionally a few "barbarian" tribes would wander into Roman territory and shake things up, but the Roman response was always the same. They send a few legions in and burn the hell out of everything the army touched. And that's the end of that insurrection.

It wasn't until the end of the empire that armies capable of standing ANY chance against the Romans began to emerge and fight the Romans again....and that was due to the fact that the Germans and Eastern tribes began adopting and mimicking the Roman Legions themselves.....

Trajan's column, monuments, letters, pictures, and even the Emperor's name reflect the power of the Roman army.

Just picture Trajan as Tony Montana: "you mess with me, you mess with the best!".

And everyone knew the Romans had the war record to back up statements like that too.....hence the reason the army was largely inactive post-Augustus....

This was actually all covered today in lecture, so you're getting FRESH knowledge from the U of M Classics Department here!!

Retreat in the face of a strong enemy is a sign not of weakness but of strength. By resisting the temptation to respond to an aggressor, you buy yourself valuable time - time to recover, to think, to gain perspective. Sometimes you can accomplish most by doing nothing.

One man emphasizes this point above all, Fabius Maximus Cuncator, ie, "the delayor".

The Romans had been trounced by Hannibal repeatedly. Fabius saw this, saw what army the Senate had given him command over (a bunch of Green losers for legionaries), and said, "F that!"

He famously defeated Hannibal by refusing to fight....and it worked trememdously.

Hannibal was in hostile territory, and his goal was to unite the Italian tribes against Rome, knowing full well the strength of Rome lay in her allies (anyone wanna guess the modern day reference?).

Thus, he needed a constant string of victories to sway the allies to defect to Carthage.

But when Fabius refused to fight, Hannibal was left like a boat without a paddle, so to speak. Useless.

He stopped receiving reinforcements, and started making enemies in Italy (as he had to pillage the landscape for supplies and food to feed his army, not a real good way to convince people you are there as a "liberator" from the evil Romans....).

Unfortunately, the Romans got tired of this strategy, and discontinued the delay strategy that had worked so well. So Fabius was followed by several other Roman defeats, and the war dragged on....

Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the battle and calculating ahead. It requires that you focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it. Let others get caught up in the twists and turns of the battle, relishing their little victories. Grandstrategy will bring you the ultimate reward: the last laugh.

The target of your strategies should be less the army you face than the mind of the man or woman who runs it. If you understand how that mind works, you have the key to deceiving and controlling it. Train yourself to read people, picking up the signals they unconsciously send about their innermost thoughts and intentions.

14. OVERWHELM RESISTANCE WITH SPEED AND SUDDENNESS: THE BLITZKRIEG STRATEGY

In a world in which many people are indecisive and overly cautious, the use of speed will bring you untold power. Striking first, before your opponents have time to think or prepare, will make them emotional, unbalanced, and prone to error.

Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the battle and calculating ahead. It requires that you focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it. Let others get caught up in the twists and turns of the battle, relishing their little victories. Grandstrategy will bring you the ultimate reward: the last laugh.

I'm gonna jump ahead a few millenia and use the US civil war for this one. The entire Army of the Potomac comes to mind.

The Union lost an imeasurable amount of men and battles. But the end result was the destruction of the Confederacy.

Battles like Fredericksburg saw an absolute annihilation of Union troops, but they were replacable, whereas Lee's troops were not.

Ok, back to Rome!

This also brings to mind the phrase "Pyrrhic victory". And in fact, that's my ancient example.

King Pyrrhus was able to defeat a few Roman armies in battle, but at such a cost that he could not continue his war, and the Romans were able to secure victory.

This is also the same Grand Strategy used against Hannibal; ie, win at all costs. No matter how many legions were destroyed, the Romans kept coming....kinda intimidating really....and also explains why after Augustus no war on the scale of the Punic wars or Pyrrhic wars occured....

A good check on this is the complete opposite however:

12b: WIN BATTLES BUT LOST THE WAR: NO STRATEGY

Again, Pyrrus, Lee, and Hannibal all fit this category. None of them were able to accomplish their Grand Plans, and despite winning many (and nearly every) battle of the wars they fought in, still lost in the end.

A word to the wise would be to keep this in mind, and be prepared to change the Grand Strategy should it be clear it is not working or no longer an option, regardless of how many battles it is winning you....